Guyana has been recognised for its efforts in combating HIV/AIDS, the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement Sunday.
The Ministry noted that in 2016, HIV/AIDS budgetary allocation and disbursement was hiked by some 150% and this attracted the likes of the Director of Health and HIV/AIDS Office from the USAID/Eastern and Southern Caribbean, Julia Henn.
Henn, according to the statement, said the rise in expenditure from 25% in 2015 to 64% is simply “mind-boggling”.
The Ministry noted that the impressive government step-up is a response to declining global support for health.
The Ministry explained increases in spending in the public health sector is an overall pattern in the social services by the government which is taking the lead in the HIV/AIDS fight, according to government statistics.
It noted that recent data reveals that State spending for the HIV/AIDS stands at 62%, funding from the country’s international partners at 35%, and donation from “other sources” listed at 3%.
Guyana is also doing really well when expenditures were dis-aggregated by ‘type’, the Ministry said. According to official figures, the country is spending 52% of allocations in the HIV/AIDS fight on preventative care, while 21% of the sum targets curative care.
Administrative costs are calculated at 25% while capital and ‘other’ take 1% of the estimates in that sub-sector.
Dr Karen Cummings, Minister within the Public Health Ministry, is quoted as saying “Guyana’s Health Accounts will play a pivotal role in national health care policy. It will also serve as a base from which sub-accounts of expenditures useful to decision-makers can be crafted. Our health accounts will serve as a base from which projections of health expenditures can be modelled.”